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Aesthetic Bodybuilding
While a lot of people consider bodybuilding to be simply building the most muscle for every muscle that can be worked out, I consider it to be achieving the best body that will on your specific frame, using bodybuilding as a way to achieve that. This may mean not working out some muscles as much as other muscles in order to maintain an 'aesthetic' physique. Of course, aesthetic can mean different things to different people. I consider aesthetic to be the classic V-taper shape that many strive for. Obviously, your frame can affect how close you can get to achieving that physique but I believe it is possible using the right techniques. The most important muscles for a v-taper are the lateral delts, the lats and obviously having a small waist with <16% body fat. However, you should build all muscles to achieve an aesthetic physique. Having good posture is also imperative to looking aesthetic - you won't look good if you're hunched over. I'll be going over how to build your muscles and what kind of exercises you should do to build them so you end up looking good. Bodybuilding vs Powerlifting Even though some people claim there's no difference between bodybuilding and powerlifting, there certainly is. First of all we need to define the terms, bodybuilding is increasing muscle mass in order to attain an aesthetic physique and strength gains are secondary, powerlifting is gaining strength and gaining muscle mass is secondary. Of course, they're intertwined but aren't achieved in the same way. With powerlifting, you tend to go with lower reps (1-5) and your goal is to increase your weight on the bar. Powerlifters tend to eat a lot and don't care about aesthetics, which is why they'll often look fat. Popular powerlifting programs include Starting Strength and Stronglifts. With bodybuilding, you tend to go higher reps (6-20) and your goal is to to look good by building up muscle. Bodybuilding is all about mind-muscle connection and breaking down the muscle tissue to force it to grow. If you wanna look good, do a bodybuilding program. If you wanna gain strength, do a powerlifting program. You can also mix both in a powerbuilding program. Bulking Bulking is about gaining weight in the form of muscle while minimising the amount of fat that you gain. Before bulking, make sure that you're below 20% body fat. If not, cut down before bulking. Here are the important things you need while bulking. # Training: You obviously you have to lift, or otherwise you're simplly going to gain fat. Additionally, you should have enough rest for each muscle group or they simply won't grow. Your muscle grows while you're resting. Here's an example program of mine train all muscle groups efficiently while providing adequate rest periods. # Calories: Gaining weight is all about CICO (Calories In Calories Out) - you have to consume more calories than you burn in order to gain weight. In order to bulk while gaining a minimal amount of fat and maximum muscle, go for a calorie surplus of 300-500 calories. # Protein: Make sure you're getting at least 1 gram of protein for every pround that you weigh. For example, if you're 100 pounds you should consume 100g a day. # Sleep: You should be sleeping from 7-9 hours a day, any less can be detrimental on your gains. Body Structure Lifetime Muscular Potential A natural lifter can gain 18-23kg of muscle in their lifetime. So if you have a small frame you can gain about 18kg of muscle and if you have a larger frame you can gain about 23kg of muscle. If you eat, sleep and train well consistently with a decent calorie surplus of about 300-500 calories, you'll gain about 10kg of muscle in your first year of training, 5kg in your next year, 2.5kg in your next year and so on. Basically, the farther away you are from your muscular potential, the easier it will be to gain muscle. Frame What do I mean by frame? Basically the size of your skeleton will determine how much muscle you can put. An easy way to tell is to look at your wrist size; small wrists? Small frame. Large wrists? Large frame. For example, someone with large wrist will have larger arms than someone with small wrists, it's just a sad fact of life. Still, that won't stop you from getting a good looking body so don't give up. Genetics and your skeletal frame matter when it comes to building a V-taper. Having wide clavicles and small pelvic bones are the best way to having the perfect v-taper (in fact if you have those you'll look good without even lifting), but obviously not everyone has those. Wide clavicles revers to the shoulder bones, wide pelvis refers to the bones around the pubic area (NOT the waist, you can have a small waist but still have a wide pelvis). The pelvis is below the waist. What Muscles Do I Avoid Working? Trick question, you should work all your muscles. However, there are some muscles which you shouldn't work too much on to avoid losing the V-taper, with some exceptions which I'll explain later. These are the following; the neck, the traps, the obliques and the entire lower body. Big neck and traps will make you look narrower, obliques will make your waist look wider and big lower body will make you look narrower and shorter (which is really bad if you're already short). However, I urge you to work these muscles at least once a week and if they get too big, simply reduce the weight and maintain the relevant muscle's size. Now to the exceptions I was talking about. If you have broad shoulders aka wide clavicles, then you can build your neck and traps up no problem and you'll actually look like a beast when you do. If you have a wide pelvis, you should work on your obliques or it'll look weird if you don't. However, this means you'll have much less of a V-taper (you can still look good though, look at Jason Statham). Body Parts Back: # Lats - The most important muscle for that v-taper and is worked by any pull-up variation, pulldown variation and also straight arm cable pulldowns. I prefer underhand, narrow grip, leading with the elbows to help focus on my MMC. # Traps & Rhomboids - What people usually think of when they think of traps is actually just the upper traps, although there's three parts being the upper, middle and lower. Huge upper traps can make you look threatening but can actually reduce your v-taper as it makes you look less broad. Worked by shrugs or what I prefer, rack pulls. Any horizontal pulling exercise will work such as a dumbbell row, basically do any exercise where you're retracting your shoulder blades. Bat wings are a good isolation exercise. # Middle Traps and Rhomboids - Not that visible but important for posture. # Lower Traps - Not that visible but important for posture. Any movement where you depress your scapula, I prefer reverse shrug on a dip bar or pull up bar. Delts: # Lateral Delts - The second most important muscle for that v-taper and is worked by any lateral raise variation, such as dumbbell lateral raise, cable lateral raise, leaning lateral raise etc. I prefer dumbbell lateral raises, leading with the elbows to help focus on my MMC. Lateral raises should be done using very light weight - a good rule of thumb is that for every 5kg of pure muscle mass you gain, you should increase your lateral raise by 1kg. Work lats 2-6 times a week, at least 4 sets of 15-20 reps. Never go above 8kg for lateral raises, at that point you're just using your traps. # Rear Delts - Gives your shoulders a bit more of a 3d look and is important for posture. I prefer rear delt raises and reverse pec deck flies, leading with the elbows to help focus on my MMC. Lateral raises should be done using very light weight - a good rule of thumb is that for every 5kg of pure muscle mass you gain, you should increase your lateral raise by 1kg. Work lats 2-6 times a week, at least 4 sets of 10-15 reps. # Front Delts - Gives your shoulders a bit more of a 3d look. Front delts are worked by any pressing exercise, you honestly don't even need to isolate it. I prefer dumbbell shoulder presses, no need to lock out at the top. Work front delts 2-3 times a week, at least 4 sets of 8-12 reps. Arms: # Biceps - The muscle that most people know about, quite important for aesthetics and filling up those sleeves, makes up about 1/3 of the arm. The bicep has two heads (hence the prefix bi-), the long head and the short head. The long head is more isolated in exercises where your shoulder is flexed aka behind you, such as behind-the-back cable curls, incline dumbbell curls and drag curls. The short head is more isolated in exercises your shoulder is extended aka in front of or above you, such as in a preacher curl. When working the biceps, I'll use my first bicep exercise as a way to drive progressive overload (I prefer the barbell curl), followed by another bicep exercise just to get that volume. Work biceps 2-6 times a week, at least 4 sets of 8-12 reps. # Triceps - The somewhat overlooked muscle, makes up about 2/3 of the arm. The tricep has three heads (hence the prefex tri-), the long head, the medial head and the lateral head. The long head is more isolated in exercises where your shoulder is extended aka above you, such as any overhead tricep exercise. The lateral and medial heads are more isolated when the shoulder isn't extended, such as a tricep pushdown. I prefer dumbbell overhead extensions, cable overhead extensions, v-bar pushdowns, rope pushdowns. Work triceps 2-6 times a week, at least 4 sets of 8-12 reps. # Forearms - An underrated muscle which not many people isolate. There's the wrist flexors, which I prefer dumbbell wrist curls for. There's the wrist extensors, which I prefer dumbbell wrist extensions for. There's crush grip, which I prefer barbell finger curls for. There's support grip, which I prefer dumbell holds for. Chest: For chest exercises, make sure to retract and depress your scapula throughout the entire movement. # Upper Chest - The clavicular head of the pectoral major is important for aesthetics, much more than the middle/lower chest. Worked by any incline press or fly. I prefer incline dumbbell press, incline hammer press and incline dumbbell fly for upper chest growth. You should do upper chest work before your middle/lower chest work to avoid looking weird in t-shirts. Work upper chest 2 times a week, at least 4 sets of 8-12 reps. # Middle/Lower Chest - The sternal head of the pectoral major is needed for that full chest. Worked by any press or fly. I prefer dumbbell press and pec deck machine. Work middle/lower chest 2 times a week, at least 4 sets of 8-12 reps. Abs: For ab exercises, make sure to engage in a posterior pelvic tilt throughout the entire movement. # Rectus Abdominus - The six-pack muscle, worked by any exercise where you crunch. I prefer cable crunches. Work abs 2-6 times a week, at least 4 sets of 8-12 reps. # Obliques - Worked by crunches to a 45 degree angle, for example oblique crunches. I don't do oblique work lol. But use the same rep range as for abs. # Transverse Abdominus - Lower Body: # Glutes - Important for posture but you obviously don't want it to get too huge. Hip thrusts are my go-to glute exercise. Glute pushdowns, glute kickbacks, hip thrusts using a leg extension machine are all great exercises for the glutes. # Quads and Hammies - Squats or leg press. Rep Ranges Frequency is number of times per week.